Torg Eternity – Dead Legion
Digging Up the Better Half
Nile Empire – Cairo
One thing she could say about the Nile Empire: the coffee was even worse than it was in New York. The day she'd miss all the options at American coffee shops was not one she thought she'd ever see, but new world, new inconveniences. Hopefully the food wouldn't be as terrible as the drinks.
While she waited, and was wondering what the bars in Cairo were like, suddenly someone ran into her and knocked her off her chair. The entire table was upended when her shoulder hit the corner and went down with her. Her plate and silverware went flying, and a second later something the size and shape of the salt shaker landed hard on her eye.
It was nothing compared to what landed on her right after that: a man in what had once been a white desert robe, now marred by the three gaping bullet wounds leaking his vital contents all over it.
"Here," he gasped, and shoved something into her hand. "Was supposed to give this to you…no time to explain…" Then his eyes rolled up into his head.
Angry yelling suddenly started to come from down the street, and she had the strangest feeling that whoever had just ended the man's life was now interested in doing the same to hers.
It was a spectacle of horror.
Despite the camera shaking as it was aimed up into the sky, there was no mistaking the golden helmet of a Rocket Ranger. Two Scarab Warriors, winged soldiers in the service of the Nile Empire, flew by at high speed, slashing their swords across the ranger's back. As soon as they'd zoomed out of shot, the Rocket Ranger disappeared in the cloud of a giant explosion, the attack having ignited their rocket pack. A blackened form fell from it and crashed to the ground, limbs flailing about like a marionette with cut strings.
What followed was a proclamation of victory over another subversive against the Nile Empire, but he barely heard it as he got up and stormed out of the theater. He was still clenching his teeth in anger when he'd stomped out into the sun-baked streets of Cairo again.
"Gh…Alan? Are you alright?" asked a soft voice. "What are you doing? Aren't we missing the film?"
"Sophia, I just can't," he sighed.
A hand slipped over his shoulder. "Did you know them?" the huntress asked.
He shook his head. "Not personally, no, but the Rocket Rangers were some of the best heroes that came here from Terra. If they're being blown to bits by the Empire's soldiers like nothing…something has to change, Sophia. We need something bigger than heroes. We need a real alliance of heroes, but as far as I know all the ones from Terra are still fighting crime in little groups like they always have."
Sophia took Alan by the hand and started walking down the busy street away from the theater. "I've thought about this recently too. You say an army of heroes came here from your world, but—"
Before Sophia could finish, a familiar sound seized their thoughts.
Gunfire.
Automatically Alan put his hands around Sophia's shoulders and pulled her down behind a vendor's wagon that offered the pair some cover, while not being a problem to peer out from behind to see what was going on.
A battered grey jeep, decorated with bulletholes, whipped around a corner at breakneck speed, but they couldn't help staring at the driver in the scant seconds she was in front of them. It was a woman with artificially red hair, wearing an eye-searingly bright turquoise vest. Pink and yellow shapes like stars and horse heads were pinned into hair, and a machine gun was dangling from her shoulders.
Almost immediately they saw what she'd been speeding away from, another jeep seating a pair of men in the familiar headdresses and loincloths of Nile Empire shocktroopers. They were scowling and screaming something neither Alan or Sophia could understand above the sound of their jeep's engine, but it was clear enough how angry they were and at who as they steered down the street after the strange woman.
But the soldiers weren't all. Buzzing through the air a few above them was a masked woman in brown armor, carried on flittering metal wings. She reminded Alan of a cockroach, but he knew more than the vermin she reminded him of.
"Grand Cicada," he breathed as the jeep full of yelling shocktroopers and the armored woman zoomed down the street. "One of the pharaoh's stooges."
"Alan, have you heard 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' ?" Sophia asked.
He was sticking a hand into a concealed pocket in his vest when he answered. Out of it, he pulled his mask. "Sounds like sage advice," he smirked.
This ancient machine was fighting everything she'd learned about street racing. Every input—the wheel, the gear shift, the accelerator—was so stiff. So primitive. And the top speed was pitiful. At least the biggest threat was crashing into something new every second in the middle of a crowded Cairo street, not winning a drag race. A camel here, a fruit cart there, a group of women carrying baskets in front of themselves that they threw above their heads before screaming in terror and scrambling out of the way of the jeeps careening past.
Over all the noise, not least the roar of her own engine, Kristina easily heard the sound of a hail of bullets slicing into her vehicle. Spiderwebs formed in the windscreen as bulletholes were punched through it. Worse, that tingling feeling she knew all too well a bleeding wound was coming from her arm.
Those had come awfully close. She had to lose these soldiers. Fast.
Kristina Rouge dramatically stomped her foot down on the gas pedal. She unslung her gun and pointed it up, firing a few times to try and scare people out of her way. Her wish was granted, bystanders throwing aside their bags and baskets and a few hurriedly leading their camels up against the sides of buildings.
One pair of men pulling a cart screamed in surprise and ran in opposite directions, forcing Kristina to keep going straight ahead to avoid hitting either of them. That meant plowing into their cart. Which sent its contents splattering all over Kristina's jeep.
Fruit. In the heat of the moment she didn't bother trying to guess what kinds, but in seconds the windscreen was covered in red, white and yellow mush.
And she'd already noticed Nile Empire military jeeps didn't have windshield wipers.
Kristina tried to the side to avoid a stack of crates she'd seen just before the crash, only to hear, then feel a shock run through the jeep as it ran into something and stopped cold. This wasn't Kristina Rouge's first car crash, and out instinct she threw herself awkwardly onto the passenger seat of the jeep, struggling toward the alley next to the building that'd stopped her. Like whenever she'd been in a crash before, her first and only thought was getting away from the wreck before the cops could catch up to her.
As she swung her feet back onto the ground, she slung her gun's strap over her shoulder again, and snatched a wooden apple from under the seat.
And she ran.
The alley looked like a movie set to her mind. Dirty laundry hung on clotheslines between the buildings. An old man in ragged robes, huffing a hookah, sat in the shadow of a stack of old crates and cried out in alarm as a young woman with a gun ran past him. A black cat seemed to appear out of nowhere, screech in surprise and go running out of sight again.
She'd certainly been told the reality that was taking over Egypt was like that. Dramatic, a lot like old adventure movies. Even contrived. There wasn't long to dwell on that; behind her, she heard the other jeep screech to a halt and the shocktroopers inside yelling angrily as they got out and climbed over her own wreck of a jeep to chase after her.
A fork appeared in front of her, and Kristina leaned to the left. She had no idea where she was going, or how she might lose the shocktroopers, who probably knew the area a lot better than she did. A glance over her shoulder showed the soldiers in hot pursuit, weapons in their hands, obviously eager to use them.
With all her strength, Kristina kicked the stack of crates next to her, sending them toppling as the shocktroopers closed in behind her. Then she took off running, as hard and fast as she could after the chase she'd been involved in for the most of the last hour.
The alley split off to her right and she darted down it. Someone dumped a bucket of water out the window as she ran by, almost missing Kristina Rouge. At least, she hoped it was water. From the smell, she was less than convinced. Instead she focused on the bright light of a main street in front of her. More places to run and hide. If she gave her pursuers the slip, she could focus on finding somewhere to call her contacts.
Almost as soon as she thought that, a dark jeep pulled to a sudden stop, blocking her escape back onto the streets. The four shocktroopers in the jeep were getting out, but Kristina paid them little attention. Because that was when the lady in the weird bug armor swooped down and landed in front of her.
"Hand that over, girl," the armored villainess demanded.
"No way in hell, bug," Kristina retorted.
The villainess hissed quietly and clenched both of her fists, quivering at her sides. "How dare you, miserable little Stormer!" she demanded.
"I never respected my parents' authority," Kristina said. "Don't see why I should respect a lady in a cockroach suit!" She twisted and swung her machine gun forward on its strap, reaching out to grab the butt of the weapon with her free hand, but Kristina never touched it. Suddenly there was a crack and her arm jerked back, spraying blood across the dirt.
The villainess had produced a bullwhip from under one wing, and the tip was painted red from where it opened a gash in the side of Kristina's arm. Beside the villainess, her shocktrooper entourage fell into formation, one standing on each side, and another one kneeling next to him. All of them aiming their guns at Kristina. From behind she heard the familiar sound of rifles cocking as well.
"What were you saying about respect, Stormer?" the villainess asked. "My name is Grand Cicada, one of the pharaoh's personal enforcers. Let me hear you say that name, or I'll have my men open fire."
"I don't think so, roach lady."
With blinding speed Grand Cicada's whip cracked again and struck Kristina on the side of her head. She hit the ground, stunned and bleeding. "Let that teach you some respect, Stormer!" Grand Cicada yelled at her. "You, get the apple from her. Can't risk that getting shot up. As soon as he's clear, the rest of you open fire!"
Giving a bizarre look to the villainess's back at being ordered to recover an apple, one of the shocktroopers broke away from his formation and jogged over to where Kristina lay dazed. He leaned down to pick up the apple that'd rolled away from her outstretched fingers.
Suddenly he choked, then fell on his back. Before he hit the dirt, something wrenched the gun from his hands and for a second it hovered in midair. Just as suddenly, a masked man with dirty blond hair and sand-stained clothes appeared, holding the stolen gun. Shocktroopers gasped in surprise and took aim, but by then the masked man had already opened fire and cut down the ones behind Kristina. He whipped around and aimed at Grand Cicada, who turned and spread plates on her back like a shield as the masked man fired again. Bullets ricocheted away, and one of the shocktroopers flinched and retreated as one knocked his headdress off.
Another shocktrooper squealed for a second before he was cut down. Then a dark-haired woman, a streak of white running through it, suddenly broke through the soldiers' ranks from behind. A short blade flashed in her hand before she plunged it into the back of one of the shocktroopers who'd stood his ground. Clenching her teeth, the woman turned and threw her knife into the throat of another shocktrooper still on his feet.
Kristina Rouge had no idea who her saviors were, but if she'd learned anything, especially since these Possibility Wars started, it was never question a lucky break.
Finally getting her head together enough to peel herself off the floor of the alley, Kristina lunged and grabbed the apple. With that safely back in her possession, she rolled over and grabbed for her machine gun.
Grand Cicada turned around, lunging at Kristina and the masked man, her armored wings spread. One slapped into the masked man and knocked him against the wall. Another knocked Kristina's gun down the alley until she couldn't even see it anymore.
But that didn't mean she was helpless. Kristina reached out and grabbed Grand Cicada by the leg while she was flying overhead, and twisted her body as hard as she could. Grand Cicada gasped in surprise and the tip of a bladed wing embedded itself in the wall. The villainess leaned hard, trying to pull herself free.
A loud, grating laugh grabbed their attention. Both women looked back to the see the masked man and his dark-haired companion, standing over the bodies of Cicada's shocktrooper escort.
"I heard what you were telling our friend here before…You're one of the pharaoh's elite enforcers?" the masked man taunted. "I know about you. You got that suit by stealing and tuning up a suit of Scarab Warrior armor. Those flying soldiers. You know, I saw the newsreels a little while ago…Scarab Warriors killed Rocket-22. Just faceless troops in the pharaoh's army. How many Mystery Men have you beaten, roach girl?"
"I'm about to beat one now!" Grand Cicada screamed. With a fierce tug she pulled herself free from the wall and launched herself at the masked man.
Who disappeared from sight. Grand Cicada gasped again and braced herself against the wall with her feet before she crashed into the stone. While her body was still absorbing the shock, Kristina Rouge and the dark-haired woman provided a new one, driving an elbow in the side of Grand Cicada's uncovered head.
For a few seconds, Grand Cicada staggered drunkenly around the street. Casting her eyes at Kristina, then at the dark-haired woman, the villainess snarled in rage, spread her armor's wings again and took off. Straight up into the air. She glared down at them for a few more seconds, then buzzed away, dripping blood from her face.
Kristina jumped back when the masked man reappeared next to her, smiling softly. "Ma'am," he said, "I think you'd better tell us what the story is with that apple you've got there."
As the sun lowered over the filthy streets of Cairo, Kristina Rouge was sitting on the back veranda of the Delphi Council safe house. Kenneth Nakatomi looked quite the sight, serving a tray of lemonade to her and her two saviors in his white suit and fedora before taking a seat with them. "Miss Rouge," he said after an overly dramatic sip from his straw, "let me be the one to give you a proper welcome to the Nile Empire. I'm sorry your first experience was with one of the pharaoh's flunkies, but I'm relieved you and my other acquaintances came through it so smoothly. In any case, I'd introduce you, but you strike me as a woman who prefers to introduce herself."
Kristina looked back and forth at the others. The masked man, who by then had taken his mask off again, offered the other woman a cigarette from a pack. When she took it, he got out a battered lighter and lit her cigarette before lighting one for himself. They seem so used to each other already, Kristina mused. I hope I can fit in this time.
"Hi, everybody," Kristina spoke up, trying a casual smile. "I'm Kristina Rouge, from New York City. I used to be into car racing, before the whole coast got turned into a jungle full of dinosaurs and all the roads got destroyed. I was helping the Delphi Council try and fight back there, but I do better with things I understand. Like people. So I asked for a transfer to a territory with human invaders to fight, instead of monsters all the time."
The dark-haired woman gave her a probing look. "She has a certain wisdom, Nakatomi."
Kristina looked back at her. "What should I call you, miss?" she asked.
The dark-haired woman made a "tch" sound, seemingly at being asked such a blunt question, but after another puff on her cigarette, answered. "I am called Sophia Black. I am a slayer of horrors from the world of Gaea. Be glad if all you have to fight in your lifetime are other humans."
"You mean, like…you slay monsters?" Kristina asked, a quiet horror in her voice.
Sophia nodded. "I slew the loup-garou that killed my fiancé…and other monsters since then."
"Oh my god…" Kristina whispered. With noticeable haste, she turned to the other man at the table then. "So, you must be one of those superheroes this reality has?"
He nodded. "I guess. They call me the Ghost. I fought crime, I suppose you might say, on another world called Terra. The same one Doctor Mobius is from. I came here with other heroes to track him down when he invaded Earth, with all those other 'High Lord' characters."
She nodded back. "So, like…you have superpowers, then?"
Ghost shrugged. "Well, I have the power to turn invisible for a while."
"For how long?"
Ghost shrugged again. "I haven't really bothered to time it. It's sort of like holding my breath when I do it. But now that I think about it, yeah, it's been getting easier to keep it up than when I first got the power."
Suddenly, Kristina Rouge seemed to explode with questions. "How did you get it? Was there a laboratory accident? Or like cosmic rays? Did a wizard do it? Do you have a sidekick? Do you want a sidekick? Can I be your sidekick?"
He recoiled slightly, the cigarette almost dropping from his lip. Nakatomi chuckled into his hand. It took Ghost a second to find his voice. "Aren't we forgetting something important, miss? Why exactly did Grand Cicada and the shocktroopers come after you?" he asked.
Almost automatically, Kristina Rouge brought up her hand holding the wooden apple. "It must be this. A dying man gave it to me." Nakatomi took it from her hand, twisted the stem around three times, and the top half split off. Inside the wooden shell was a small folded note. He took it, unfolded it, and started to read.
There is no time. My agents have discovered that Dr. Mobius is planning some sort of magical ritual. Enclosed are rough coordinates. My sources say Mobius is cackling mad, screaming "The time is now!" Confusing reports. Something about resurrection and a lost spell. I can't confirm what his plans are, but they must be stopped. Use the coordinates to get whatever he's planning and STOP HIM AT ALL COSTS!
"Sounds serious," Sophia observed. Kristina gave her a bewildered look.
"Indeed it does," Nakatomi replied. "And it's signed by one of my associates' codenames, so I've got to assume it's true. I need to mount an expedition and put my best agents on this immediately." He turned to the three people sitting around his veranda table. "That means you three."
His first reply was a dry laugh from Ghost. "Right now, I guess."
Nakatomi's face was completely rigid. "There's no other choice. If Doctor Mobius is this interested in something, the Delphi Council absolutely can't afford to let him get it. I don't have to tell you he's probably got a head start on us already. Get your weapons, guys."
Indeed, Nakatomi wasn't kidding. With the sun giving up its last dying rays of the day, three people slipped into the Cairo night. Not long after they stepped out of a pair of cabs and made their way to an old library in an affluent neighborhood. The doors were already locked due to the late hour, but one of them bent down, inserted a wavy piece of metal into the lock, twisted it, and opened the door.
They locked the doors behind them again, but as soon as they stepped through the threshold an old bearded man looked up from the desk where he was sitting, surrounded by books. "I'm sorry, the library is closed for the night," he called politely. "Please visit tomorrow."
None of them made any move to comply with the request. One got a capsule from a pouch on their belt and lobbed it onto the old man's desk. It shattered on the wood and released a cloud of green smoke that quickly gushed up into the old man's face. He barely had time to let out a squeal of surprise before falling face-down onto his desk, and started to snore.
"Alright, spread out and see if you can find anything suspicious," Ghost said.
"Like what?" Kristina asked. "Are we supposed to look at the name on every book to see if one sounds like it opens a secret passage? I don't think I can even read some of the languages these are in."
Ghost shook his head. "That'd take days, we'll be lucky if we have hours. Try other clues. Like see if you notice an airflow coming from someplace there shouldn't be one. It might indicate a secret opening. Or a hollow echo if you tap a wall."
Kristina canted her head, an appreciative smile on her face. "Done this before, have you?"
He shrugged. "It was how I found where they were holding Estelle Dyerwood. Look, we've got a job to do, so split up and start looking. Give a yell if you find anything."
With that, the three spread out, each in a different direction. Kristina Rouge stayed on the ground floor, checking the bookshelves for an obtrusive airflow like Ghost had advised, a space between bookshelves that might hide a hinge, or even a book that looked out of place.
But when she noticed something suspicious, it wasn't on the walls. She was going down an aisle between two books and felt a dull echo as her foot came down on the floor.
A familiar thrill of excitement, like when she'd stomped the gas pedal as soon as the green light showed, went up Kristina's body. Quickly she got on her hands and knees and knocked on the floor with one fist. Again a hollow sound from below. After a bit more exploration she found it only seemed to cover an area a few feet square. Strange, for an ordinary cellar.
So, what if it wasn't the cellar?
"Guys! I think I found it!" she yelled.
Soon Sophia and Ghost came running in, Ghost carrying a sledge hammer. Kristina pointed out the spot she'd found in the floor, and Ghost got to work bashing it in with the hammer. After a couple swings he got winded, and Sophia finished bashing in the panel hiding what turned out to be a flight of stone stairs. Thick, foul air, uncirculated for centuries, spread out and filled the aisle, forcing the three of them to hold their breath for a few minutes until it had a chance to disperse. Once it had, Ghost pulled a flare from his weapons belt, lit the tip and went first down the stairs. His other hand settled on the grip of one of his holstered pistols.
Kristina darted in front of Sophia to walk down the steps side-by-side with Ghost. "Hey, doesn't it seem kind of weird to you there'd just be a library on top of this tomb, or whatever? That they never found this when they were building the library?"
"Not really," Ghost murmured. "I don't totally understand it myself, but when I first got here, Doctor Frest told us all about something he called 'the Egypt That Never Was'. When the pharaoh dropped his version of Egypt on top of the one in your world, there was such a big shock to the fabric of reality, things from versions of Egypt that never existed in ours or yours started to appear. Now there's all kinds of ancient tombs and the ruins of old cities out there in the desert unknown to history; I'll bet you anything this is one of them."
"But if that pharaoh guy Mobius wants it, something really awesome must be down there," Kristina observed.
Ghost nodded, a sharp frown forming on his face. "Yeah."
Part of Kristina had expected ornately carved walls full of messages in hieroglyphics and elaborate murals of kings and gods. Boxes and piles of treasure. Maybe sarcophagi lining the walls opening up to reveal mummy guardians looking to vent their anger at their rest being disturbed by thieves.
She was disappointed.
At the bottom of the stairs, the only thing that greeted them was a narrow stone room. A wall stood in the middle but there was easily enough space to walk around it. Ghost led the way in. Slowly. Cautiously. He headed for the left side. Kristina walked straight through.
And a tile in the floor sank under her weight.
All three of them froze. Underneath them came the sound of an ancient mechanism grinding to life. There was a loud, hollow CLUNK from inside the wall.
Then nothing.
With light steps, Ghost went over to the middle of the wall and held up his flare, exposing a small hole in the middle. He peered inside for a minute, then lowered the flare to his side again. "I see something in there," he announced. "It looks like a crossbow, probably triggered by that tile Kristina stepped on. Guess the cord that connects the switch to the trap must've rotted or something."
Sophia made a thoughtful sound in her throat. "Makes one wonder how old this tomb is, and what the story of whoever's buried here could be."
It didn't take long to explore the rest of the tomb. There was another room with a pair of plain stone sarcophagi lain on the floor, against either wall. Past that was a final room that held nothing but a skeleton still holding a tube of metal in one hand. Ghost reached out, delicately took the tube, and opened it, pulling out an ancient note. He read:
I have done as I hoped my lord and lady would command by finding them a proper resting place here in this hidden chamber. I have also laid with them the spell that may rejuvenate their life should anyone have the courage to use it. I curse myself that I do not. My lord was a god and had the power of creation in his blood. I am just a simple servant and am incapable of such magic.
So I rest here to guard them. I will perish soon but I have no life outside this room. I served my master and mistress all my life and I will end my life with them, with only final gift to me to remind me of his majesty.
Silence fell over the tomb again as the magnitude of what they'd just heard settled into three minds. The first one to speak up was Kristina Rouge. "Magic that can bring people back to life? Is that even a real thing?"
"Just the fact that it might be is reason enough to make sure Doctor Mobius don't get it," Ghost said.
"But where would it be? In those coffins in the last room?" asked Kristina.
Ghost nodded. "It's the obvious place. Help me lift this off, will you?"
Sophia looked at him gravely. "Is that wise?" she asked him. "Disturbing the dead? Where I come from, more than a few slayers have never returned from venturing to put spirits to rest who were roused by their rest being disturbed."
"I know what you mean, Sophia. But if this guy was as great as his buddy back there thinks, his ghost'll understand us making sure Doctor Mobius doesn't get his hands on something to raise the dead."
After some gripping, lifting and shifting, they dropped the lid of one sarcophagus on the floor. Inside was another skeleton, this one clad in what had obviously once been opulent robes, fit only for the powerful ruler of a powerful civilization. Now they were faded rags caked in dirt, dust and cobwebs. But in his skinless hands was a roll of parchment. Ghost deftly slipped the scroll from between the skinless fingers and held it up, grinning victoriously.
Suddenly, the scroll fell to shreds.
All three looked down at the remnants of the scroll in horror. Ghost recovered first, covering his face with his hand and grunting in disgust. Sophia's expression turned from one of shock to a grim calm, probably at their enemies being denied the power of resurrection.
However, Kristina Rouge seemed to spot something and wandered back into the last room, where the skeleton of the servant sat crouched against the wall. Through all the grime of ages, she was sure she'd seen something before. Leaning down and peering at the skeleton, Kristina's suspicions were rewarded. Around its neck was a tarnished golden necklace, a blue gem hanging from its cord. A strange power beckoned to Kristina Rouge from the gem. A kind of warm, reassuring power. She lifted the necklace free of its last owner's remains and put it on herself.
Heading back into the room before, Kristina walked back in to see Ghost scooping the decayed remains of the scroll into a bag that he put into a pouch on his weapon's belt. "I must warn against this, Ghost," Sophia said, "Magic is fueled by the same darkness that creates monsters. I couldn't live with…" she trailed off, looking away, almost as if she'd said too much.
"That's probably true where you're from," Ghost replied. "Right now, the rules are the ones where I'm from, and some of Terra's greatest heroes were magicians. Like Mendyr the Mystic, Dr. Limbo, that jaguar priest down in South America…"
"So, there's lots of superheroes on this world you're from?" Kristina interrupted, her lips starting to curl upward in an excited grin.
Ghost seemed startled by how forcefully she came up to him, and Sophia frowned. With a shrug, Ghost answered, "I mean, yes, there are heroes with colorful names and special powers, and plenty of other famous adventurers too."
"And you have some kind of big, international organization where you trade information or team up to fight crime?"
"Um…no," Ghost said, and Kristina deflated before his eyes. "That was what Dr. Frest had in mind when he formed an army and brought them here to fight the pharaoh, I'm pretty sure. It hasn't really been working out."
Kristina looked at him, canting her head slightly in confusion. "You said 'them'. Not 'us'."
Ghost shrugged, turned around and head for the door. "I'm…," he started to say, but glanced over his shoulder at Sophia. "…we're trying to be more open to working with outside help. This Delphi Council group seems like one of those…um, big international organization to fight crime you just talked about."
Kristina sighed. "This was lame. I thought there'd be cool treasures and traps and stuff in these old ruins. I asked for a transfer over here because it was supposed to be really exciting."
"Be glad this is no tomb of horrors," Sophia warned.
"Are you kidding? We fought an actual supervillain today! I was hoping for more like that."
"And you shall!" called out an angered voice, coming from the stairway leading down to the tomb. Standing there, blocking the only exit, was the Grand Cicada. Her armor's wings were spread wide, reaching all the way from one side of the room to the other, and humming slightly as they waited to taste blood.
Far above Cairo, a dark shape grew larger as it approached the surface. A row of spotlights were illuminated to guide it in safely as it came down into their reach, revealing itself to be a powerful four-engine seaplane. The craft dipped into the river and slowed gradually until it came to a stop next to a concrete pier.
Standing on the edge was a pale man in red Chinese mandarin robes and cap, with a wispy mustache and beard. Behind him was a retinue of shocktroopers, all of whom snapped to attention as the plane's passenger stepped out.
It was Doctor Mobius himself, moving with a powerful stride, his cape billowing out dramatically behind him as he walked.
"You honor us with all your visit, mighty pharaoh," said the Oriental man with a bow.
"Skip the pleasantries, Wu Han," Mobius said, sweeping right past his henchman. "I want to see these findings you mentioned immediately."
The Oriental man smiled as he made to follow. "I can do much better than that, mighty Mobius. We will take you to the indicated location at once and procure the ritual in person."
Mobius only let out an impassive "mmm" as they got to the end of the pier. A black car was waiting, its engine already running. Mobius stopped at the curb and Wu Han obsequiously bowed and opened the door for his master, shut it again once Mobius had seated himself, then ran around the car to climb in the other side on his own.
With that, that car pulled away into the street and sped into the Cairo night.
Below the library, Grand Cicada closed in on her prey, but her opponents were ready. Ghost threw down the flare before drawing his pistoles while Kristina whipped her machine gun off her back. Sophia hung further back, pulling her rifle but watching the proceedings with a cautious eye.
In the confined space the sound of Ghost's gunfire was deafening. One bullet bounced off the shell of Cicada's armor, but the other clipped the side of her face, drawing a dark stripe of blood. Even in the dim red light of Ghost's flare, it was easy Cicada's face twisted into a teeth-clenched scowl of complete rage. The masked hero fired both of his pistols again but Cicada charged right through even though both dug into her armor. There was nowhere to escape her wide bladed wings in the narrow space of the tomb. She only spun in once place and knocked Ghost to the ground with a fierce slash across his abdomen
He fell, clutching a bloody wound on his stomach. Kristina Rouge leveled her weapon and fired a steady burst across the room, but it was only a second before Grand Cicada was on top of her too. The villainess grabbed at Kristina's weapon then delivered a vicious kick to her midriff that knocked Kristina against the wall and tore the machine gun from her fingers. She hit the wall and slumped to the floor, dazed.
"Looks like that only leaves you, Stormer," Cicada grunted to Sophia. "What did you find here? Hand it over, and I may hand you over to the pharaoh alive."
Sophia's response was a slow, dry laugh. "You think you frighten me, don't you?" she taunted. "Little girl, your world is bright and full of life. Mine is home to so much darkness, horrors in every dark corner always looking for their next victim. There are things there your untrained tongue couldn't even begin to pronounce. Of all the things you could've chosen to empower yourself as, you chose an insect. You think you can frighten me with such unrefined threats?"
Grand Cicada answered by snarling in anger and hurling herself at Sophia, who had a second to fire her rifle before the Nile Empire's villainess was upon her. Its armor-piercing shell hit home on one of Grand Cicada's wings, slicing right through the joint and sending it spinning crazily into the corner of the room, giving Sophia an opening.
She took it.
While Grand Cicada was still processing that the slayer had landed a hit, Sophia ducked through the empty space where the bladed wing had been and got behind her. Cicada turned, uncoiling her bullwhip, only to run right into a face full of stinging smoke Sophia puffed into her face from a capsule.
But through some effort of will, or just rage and desperation, Grand Cicada swung her whip and raked the corded leather across Sophia's body. Sophia gasped, stunned, her rifle almost slipping out of her hands. Another wild swing from Cicada's whip managed to hit Sophia's bicep, knocking the gun to the floor. Letting out a scream of rage, Cicada charged in Sophia's general direction. Her dagger's blade flashed as she drew it with all possible speed, and Sophia prepared to meet the attack.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room Kristina Rouge was beginning to see straight again. She could easily figure out the yells she could hear were from the others fighting, and in a few seconds saw that Sophia had been driven into a corner by Grand Cicada. The slayer stabbed for Cicada's neck with her dagger, and the villainess had grabbed Sophia's arm and was struggling to hold her at bay.
But Kristina's eyes were drawn to Ghost, who was laying in the dirt with blood dripping between the fingers pressed to his torso. "Ghost," she whispered and crawled the foot to his side. "Don't die on me, man. I don't know a lot about first aid or anything, but maybe…" she stopped talking, suddenly feeling a weird power. Coming from that necklace she picked up from the skeleton.
That healthy, reassuring power.
She reached out for Ghost's wound, and a blue and red light covered her hand. As soon as she touched Ghost, his eyes flew open and he was on his feet, guns in hand. Without hesitating he fired both at once into a box on Grand Cicada's back where her wings connected. Sparks filled the air.
And Grand Cicada's sharpened wings stopped beating.
"What…!"
In the split second while the villainess was distracted, Sophia Black, long trained to spot the slightest vulnerability, plunged her dagger into a soft-looking spot in Grand Cicada's side. Ghost fired his weapons again and chunks of her armor went flying off from a pair of precise hits.
Obviously, Grand Cicada decided discretion was the better part of valor.
She turned and ran up the stairs, trailing broken bits of armor on the ground as she ran. Ghost fired a few more shots after her, but holstered his guns and checked for the pouch with the remains of the scroll. "Everyone okay?" he asked.
"Fine, I suppose," Sophia answered.
"You suppose?"
She looked down glumly. "My fiancé gave me that dagger."
"Forget about that!" Kristina yelled and pointed. "Ghost's still bleeding!"
The patch of red on his shirt had gotten even bigger, it was true. Letting out a groan, Ghost clutched his wound. "Whatever that necklace you took did, it looks like it didn't actually heal me…we better get out of here before Cicada comes back with some of her buddies." As fast as they could go, the trio snuck back out of the tomb and made their way to the front doors. They were hanging open, torn off their hinges. Probably by Grand Cicada in her hurry to get away with her life.
It only took a second to see they had much bigger problems, unfortunately. Parked out on the curb was a shining black car, flanked front, back and side by military jeeps carrying gun-packing shocktroopers. Climbing out of the back of the black car was Doctor Mobius himself. The lights in the darkness of his hood locked onto the three heroes, and immediately one powerful hand flew to a metal charm pinned to the edge of his cloak. He chanted a few words in a language none of the trio understood. Then…
"SEIZE THEM," he roared. All at once the entire world felt like it was falling apart around the three heroes. They staggered drunkenly on the sidewalk while the ground quaked. Ghost clutched at his wound, the force of the pharaoh's voice alone tearing it open wider. Sophia and Kristina clutched their ears. Windows exploded into storms of razor-sharp shards in the front of the library. Grinning like demons, the shocktroopers of the pharaoh's escort jumped down from their jeep, obviously looking forward to having easy pickings.
"No," Kristina Rouge whispered. She touched the necklace, feeling its reassuring power surging up into her hands again. The light of Doctor Mobius's eyes inside his hood went wide as he realized what he was seeing.
But it was too late. Kristina Rouge laid a hand on the shoulders of Ghost and Sophia. Right away the blue glow engulfed their bodies before traveling up and covering Kristina too. A few of the shocktroopers had seen enough and peppered the air with bullets.
"Scatter!" Sophia ordered. She and Kristia ran off in opposite directions, Sophia shouldering a pair of shocktroopers out of her way as she dashed into the shadows. Ghost, however, turned and peered into the lights of Mobius's eyes. The hooded villain was already chanting something in his ancient language again, and Ghost did the unthinkable.
He leveled and fired his .45's at the pharaoh of the Nile Empire.
Both bullets exploded as they hit a transparent screen around Mobius's body, doing no damage at all. For a split-second the shocktroopers' mouths hung open, so, appropriately, shocked by an enemy actually having the nerve to attack their supreme leader, they stopped firing. In that split-second Ghost disappeared.
Leaving a street full of dumbstruck soldiers and pulp villains.
Unsurprisingly, Doctor Mobius recovered before anyone else in his entourage. "Bring me the one who you caught trying to escape," the pharaoh growled.
Half an hour had passed since Sophia and Kristina made it back to the Delphi Counceil safe house. Sophia was still sitting on the floor of the main room, field-stripping her rifle and inspecting every part for the third time. Kristina sat in a chair, drumming her fingers together. For his part, Deputy Director Nakatomi was wondering why he was still awake.
"Ladies, not that I'm not touched by this show of devotion, but Ghost knows how to survive better in this reality than all of us put together…" Nakatomi murmured.
"He got stabbed, boss," Kristina protested. She whipped the necklace off her neck and held it up. "I still don't know what this thing did, but it didn't heal any of us. It just sort of…got him back on his feet."
Nakatomi took the necklace from her hand and inspected it, spat on it and wiped the dirt away from the necklace's gem. "You didn't mention you found an Eternity Shard."
Kristina shrugged and sighed. "I felt this kind of power coming from it. You sent us to the tomb to keep the pharaoh from getting power, so I just felt like I should take it, to make sure he didn't get it."
"You did a good thing by doing that, Kristina," Nakatomi assured her. "I need to keep this to give to the workshop so we can find out exactly what it does, but the fact that we have it means the pharaoh doesn't have it."
"Awww…"
Sophia grunted. "Who cares about trinkets? A good man's dying out there somewhere."
To that, Nakatomi shrugged himself. "That's the nature of the Nile Empire. Somewhere a hero's fighting a villain. Right now. Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night. The morning after."
"Boss, are you saying you don't care what happens to him?" Kristina asked in disbelief.
"I'm staying up with you waiting for him to come back safe, aren't I?"
"If I still had the energy, I'd be touched," wheezed a familiar voice, before a familiar figure materialized in the doorway. It was the Ghost, smiling weakly and sporting an even bigger bloody wound on his shirt than either of the women remembered.
The pieces of her prized rifle fell from Sophia's hands. Kristina Rouge sprang up and squeezed Ghost in a hug of relief from behind. "You're alive!" she squealed.
"Hey," he wheezed once again, but managed a weak smile. "The first night I put on this mask I'd been shot twice, clubbed on the head and thrown off a pier. I like to think I've come a ways since then..."
He said, then passed out in Kristina's arms just as Nakatomi came running back in with the first aid box.
Across the city, Doctor Mobius himself stood in the final chamber of the hidden tomb. He crumpled the note lying at the feet of the skeleton, telling of the spell that had been hidden there.
The one his underlings had found no trace of when they searched every inch. Even after they'd caught Grand Cicada fleeing the library and heard the whole story tumbling from her lips. About how like a loyal servant she'd hunted down the Stormers who'd stolen the location of this tomb from her, then valorously taken on all three Stormers all by herself to reclaim her ruler's rightful property.
And had retreated, saying she somehow knew Mobius himself and his entourage were almost at the location of the tomb, to lure the Stormers into a trap.
Lies. Pitiful lies meant to earn her recognition, then more lies to try to save herself from Doctor Mobius's wrath when she was caught in the middle of her humiliating failure. If that was what Mobius wanted to hear, he could simply talk to his servants in the royal palace, not come all the way to Cairo on a wild goose chase.
Wu Han was waiting by the car when his master emerged from the library. The Oriental criminal genius hid it well, but Mobius could easily see the flicker of fear and doubt in his eyes about whether he was going to be blamed for this turning out to be a waste of time. "Did…did they find anything, o mighty Mobius?"
"No. My reunion with Mukamatura has been delayed yet again."
Wu Han pressed his palms together and bowed. "You have my deepest apologies, of course, great and powerful—"
"Silence," Mobius barked. Wu Han obeyed and shut his jabbering mouth. "I've no more time to waste on this fool's errand, but this foul-up can't go unpunished."
There was no mistaking the sound of a nervous swallow from Wu Han. "I'll have the scholar who found the location put to death at once."
But Doctor Mobius held up a hand. "No, that cicada woman was the one who let the Stormers find where it was hidden. Who let them get away after they'd found it. She looks a dung beetle in that armor anyway. Let her shovel that until her arms drop off, thinking about her failures."
Without waiting for a reply from Wu Han, Doctor Mobius stepped into the back of the car and waved for it to pull away. It sped into the night, leaving Wu Han behind.